s long-talked-of 'Memoirs'
not in it! Do you know, my dear TIME, I think you had better postpone
the publication--for an aeon or so at least. _Your Magnum Opus_ might
become a _Scandalum Magnatum_."

"Ah, perhaps so," replied TIME, with a sigh.

"Alone with the Stars," pursued _Mr. Punch_, meditatively. "Humph! The
Solar System alone ought to provide you with plenty of company."

"Yes." responded TIME, "but, after all, you know, telescopic
intercourse is not entirely satisfactory. Like EDGAR POE's _Hans
Pfaal_, I feel I should like to come to closer quarters with the
'heavenly bodies' as the pedagogues call them."

"And why not?" queried _Mr. Punch_, coolly.

"As how?" asked his companion.

"TIME, my boy" laughed the Sage, "you seem a bit behind yourself.
Listen! 'Mr. EDISON is prosecuting an experiment designed to catch and
record the sounds made in the sun's photosphere when solar spots are
formed by eruptions beneath the surface.' Have you not read the latest
of the Edisoniana?"

TIME admitted he had not.

"TIME, you rogue, you love to get
Sweets upon your list--put _that_ in,"

quoted the Sage. "Something piquant for the 6001st Vol. of your
Chronicles. But, after all, what is EDISON compared with Me? If you
really wish for a turn round the Solar System, a peregrination of the
Planets, put aside that antiquated spy-glass of yours and come with
Me!"

And, "taking TIME by the forelock," in a very real sense, the Sage of
Fleet Street rose with him like a Brock rocket, high, and swift, and
light-compelling, into the star-spangled vault of heaven.

"SIC ITUR AD ASTRA!" said the Sage.

"Twinkle, twinkle, Fleet Street Star!
Saturn wonders who _you_ are,
Up above the world so high,
Like a portent in the sky.
Wonders if, Jove-like, you want,
Him to banish and supplant!
Fear not, Saturn; _Punch's_ bolt
Arms Right Order, not Revolt;
Dread no fratricidal wars
From this 'Star' among the Stars!"

* * * * *

VISIT TO SATURN.

"I am glad to hear _that_, at any rate," said Saturn, welcoming the
illustrious guests to his remote golden-ringed realm.

[Illustration]

Saturn, however, did not look exactly comfortable, and his voice, how
unlike "To that large utterance of the early gods," sounded quavering
and querulous.

"It is customary," said he, "to talk, as the old Romans rather
confusedly did, of 'the Saturnian reign' as the true 'Golden Age,'
iden